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Warp drive
Warp drive is a technology that allows space travel at faster-than-light speeds. It does this by generating warp fields to form a subspace bubble that envelops the starship, distorting the local spacetime continuum and moving the starship at velocities that exceed the speed of light. These velocities are referred to as warp factors. Technology 24th century Federation warp engines are fueled by the reaction of matter (deuterium) and antimatter (antideuterium), mediated through an assembly of dilithium crystals, which are nonreactive with antimatter when subjected to high-frequency electromagnetic fields. This reaction produces a highly energetic plasma, called electro-plasma, which is channeled by magnetic conduits through the electro-plasma system (EPS). The warp plasma is funneled to plasma injectors into a series of warp field coils, usually located in remote warp nacelles. These coils are composed of verterium cortenide, which provides a bridge between electromagnetic and gravitational forces. By design, it has the property that when the warp plasma circulates through the coils, a warp field is generated. Electromagnetic interactions between waves of the warp plasma and the verterium cortenide coils change the geometry of space surrounding the engine nacelles. In the process, a multilayered wave of warped space is born, and the starship cruises off to its next destination at hundreds of times the speed of light relative to normal space. Within the warp field, however, the starship does not exceed the local speed of light, and therefore does not violate the principal tenet of special relativity. Travel at velocities exceeding the speed of light is possible in this fashion because the starship is, strictly speaking, stationary (relative to the space inside the warp field) while it is the space-time immediately around the starship that is actually moving. Since spacetime itself is moving and the starship is not actually accelerating, it experiences no time dilation, allowing the passage of time inside the vessel to be the same as that outside the warp field. Other civilizations use different power sources, such as the Romulans' use of artificial quantum singularities to power their warp drives, but the basic process is similar. In some vessels, such as the , the nacelles are mounted on variable-geometry pylons. Parts of the system ]] *Antimatter containment *Antimatter inducer *Antimatter relay *Deuterium cartridges *Electro-plasma *Emergency shutdown trips *Main stage flux chiller *Magnetic conduit *Magnetic interlock *Nacelle **Bussard collectors **Plasma injector **Warp coil *Nullifier core *Pre stage flux chiller *Phase inducer *Plasma conduit *Plasma intercooler **Plasma coolant *Plasma regulator *Power transfer conduit *Power transfer grid *Space matrix restoration coil *Warp plasma conduit *Warp core / matter/antimatter reaction assembly **Antimatter injector **Dilithium crystal chamber ***dilithium chamber hatch ***dilithium crystal ***dilithium articulation frame **Matter injector/deuterium injector **Theta-matrix compositor System types *Class 7 warp drive *Class 9 warp drive *S-2 graf unit Development Warp drive and other faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion technologies are the lynch pin of an interstellar civilization, making trade and exploration across vast interstellar distances viable. Without these technologies, these distances could not be crossed in any reasonable period of time, making interstellar civilization usually limited to a single sector. ( ) To put this in perspective, planets that are years away with impulse speeds, can be reached in days with ships equipped with warp drive. ( ) Cultures in the galaxy have discovered warp drive at their own pace and rate of development. The Vulcans, who were an interstellar civilization by the 3rd century, had reached the level of warp 7 by 2151. Klingons had a capability of warp 6 by the same year. ( ) It is unclear when their first experiments with warp drive began. However, it was the rapid progress of Humanity which led to the wide-scale exploration of the galaxy and the formation of the United Federation of Planets. :Regarding Vulcan propulsion technology aboard the T'Plana-Hath, Ronald D. Moore commented: "Certainly Cochrane is credited with the invention of warp drive as we know it in ''Trek, so we could assume that the Vulcans were using something else – possibly a variant of the contained singularity used by the Romulans. That might've been a much more dangerous and inefficient technology which was quickly abandoned by most of the galaxy when Cochrane's system was introduced."'' http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron63.txt The development of the warp drive is recognized by the United Federation of Planets as the marker of an advanced society. It is only after a people develop warp drive that the Federation will make contact, as codified in the Prime Directive. ( ) 21st century On Earth, warp drive was initially developed by Zefram Cochrane in the period following World War III. Despite the hardships imposed by the war's aftermath, and the lack of advanced materials, Cochrane was able to build a manned warp-capable vessel using a converted Titan II missile. The successful first flight of his ship - the Phoenix - took place on April 5, 2063, and drew the attention of a Vulcan exploratory vessel, leading to the event known as First Contact. ( ) 22nd century However, development of warp technology proceeded slowly over the next 80 years - due in no small part to the cautious advice of the Vulcans - and it was not until the 2140s that a warp engine developed by Henry Archer at the Warp Five Complex could exceed warp factor 2. This engine was successfully tested in the second NX prototype by Commanders A.G. Robinson and Jonathan Archer to a speed of warp 2.5, breaking the so-called "warp 2 barrier." ( ) By the year 2151, warp technology was sufficiently advanced to allow a vessel to travel at warp 5, and the first Human starship, ''Enterprise'', was built with this capability. ( ) Although at first, Enterprise was unable to fully realize this potential (maxing out at warp 4.7), the starship finally reached warp 5 on February 9, 2152. ( ) By 2161, Starfleet had achieved warp 7, and was just starting to install it on the newest of Starfleet vessels. ( ) 23rd century Development and improvement of warp drive continued apace, and by the 2240s, Starfleet vessels of the had standard cruising speeds of warp 6 and emergency speeds as high as warp 8 (although under the right conditions the engines could reach warp 9). These ships took advantage of a major breakthrough in warp technology that took place between 2236 and 2254, the breaking of the so-called "time barrier". ( ) Higher warp factors continued to be reached, mostly through alien intervention, or dangerous malfunction. The was modified by the Kelvans to maintain a speed of Warp 11 in 2268. Later that year, the Enterprise achieved a speed of Warp 14.1 after being sabotaged by a Kalandan planetary defense system, though at that velocity the ship came within moments of destroying itself. ( ) At around the same time, warp engines were being redesigned to allow standard speeds of warp 8 and above. During the refit of the Constitution-class, the cylindrical shaped nacelles were replaced with a new flattened design. ( ) Warp theory continued to advance with the development of the first transwarp drive engines in the mid-2280s, which would have theoretically allowed greater efficiency and any warp speed to be available for a ship. However, the transwarp experiment of ended in failure, and the technology was abandoned at that time. The Excelsior itself was deemed spaceworthy, retrofitted with conventional warp drive and commissioned as NCC-2000 under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu. ( ; ; ) 24th century At some point in the century, a new warp factor scale came into use, which placed warp 10 as a theoretical maximum. :According to the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, the new scale was a more advanced function than the previous cubic power scale, with factors increasing exponentially in terms of power consumption and equivalent speed.'' By the time the starship was being designed in the 2360s, warp technology had progressed to the point where speeds of warp 9.6 could be sustained for up to twelve hours, although warp 9.2 was considered the "red line". ( ) In 2370, the Hekaran scientist Serova discovered that the use of conventional warp engines caused damage to the fabric of spacetime. The Federation Council imposed a speed limit of warp factor 5 on all Federation vessels in all but extreme emergency cases, such as medical emergencies. ( ) :Warp speeds above warp 5 were routinely used after 2370, without mention of the harmful effects, suggesting a solution was found, even though it was not mentioned on-screen. See: Variable-geometry pylon for the only non-canon mention. ...and beyond In an alternative future glimpsed by Jean-Luc Picard, speeds of at least warp 13 were used ( ) :These warp factor speeds were not "faster than infinite", but rather just extremely fast. Appendices Background information Gene Roddenberry originally intended the Enterprise to become transparent while in warp drive, as depicted in ( later reformatted into the two-part "The Menagerie" ). External links * * André Bormanis's explanation of Warp Drive *The Warp Drive: Hyper-Fast Travel Within General Relativity - a paper by Miguel Alcubierre * http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0712/0712.1649v1.pdf Warp Drive: A New Approach. An exciting new concept in warp drive by Richard Obousy * rec.arts.startrek.tech Warp Velocities FAQ - extra information on maximum warp explanations * rec.arts.startrek.tech Warp and Subspace FAQ - discussions about warp and subspace * Category:Propulsion technology cs:Warp pohon de:Warpantrieb es:Warp fr:Moteur à distorsion ja:ワープ・ドライブ nl:Warp aandrijving pl:Warp sv:Warp